The Wizard of Oz looks pretty good for 70!

So many films and aspects of pop culture are celebrating milestone “birthdays” this year. From Sesame Street to Barbie, and even to edgier fare like Office Space, ’09 has a bumper crop of important birthdays.

Perhaps the biggest birthday is that of the beloved classic film, The Wizard of Oz. Made in 1939 and starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale from Kansas, a girl who finds herself in a strange and mysterious world filled with singing little people and talking, dancing Scarecrows, Tin Men, and Lions. A milestone film for its day and age, the film based on L. Frank Baum’s children’s book, was filmed in brilliant Technicolor. Although its opening moments filmed in Dust Bowl-era Kansas were done in sepia tones, the bulk of The Wizard of Oz captures the Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City in all it’s brilliant glory… Especially the famously twinkling ruby slippers. It would be impossible to find yourself “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in mere black and white!